The dates that slip through every parenting plan

Most parenting plans sort the obvious rhythm first. School days here, weekends there, the long holiday blocks split down the middle. It feels complete. And then a Monday rolls around that isn't a public holiday and isn't a weekend, the school's closed for a staff development day, and two people who'd agreed on everything are suddenly working out who takes the day off work, by text, at 7am.

These in-between days are the ones that catch everyone out. They don't belong to either column, so they sit invisible in the plan until they arrive. The usual culprits: public holidays, pupil-free days (your school might call them student-free or development days), the last day of term that often finishes early, and the odd one-off closure for a sports carnival or when the school's used as a polling place.

The fix takes ten minutes and saves you a year of small arguments. When you're setting the plan up, open the school calendar for the year alongside your state's public holiday list, and decide these days the same way you decided the rest. You don't have to map every one. A simple default does most of the work: pupil-free days follow whoever has the children that weeknight, say, or you just alternate them. Early finishes go to whoever's collecting that afternoon.

It's a small thing, but it's the kind of small thing that quietly removes a recurring flashpoint. Most co-parenting friction isn't about the big decisions. It's the unplanned Tuesday. Handle the calendar once, and you've taken the argument out of a dozen ordinary days before they happen.